Lowering Background Anxiety - explores the idea of background anxiety, and suggests strategies for lowering anxiety levels to help reduce the risk of depression or developing an anxiety disorder. [PDF]
Changing Your Daily Habits - why habits matter and the importance of balance in your life [PDF]
ARTICLE – NOVEMBER 2010
Keys, check, wallet, check, mobile, check, anxiety, check. Okay, let’s go.
Each day as you head out the door to work, study, or have fun, you carry with you a level of background anxiety. This is the anxiety level that is your resting state – the base from which your anxiety will spike up when something stressful and/or unexpected happens. Anxiety is normal, but it is important to be aware of how much anxiety you are carrying. And if you are carrying a lot of background anxiety it is worth taking steps to lower this resting anxiety level.
So how do you know if you are carrying too much background anxiety? Why does it matter? And what can you do about it?
If your background anxiety levels are high then it won’t take much stimulation for your anxiety levels to spike up into the uncomfortable range. For example, if you are already anxious then a loud, unexpected noise like a door slamming will trigger a much more uncomfortable response than if you had a lower background anxiety level. Higher background anxiety levels can also make sleeping more difficult – either getting to sleep, or waking up during the night with your mind racing. And trouble concentrating during the day, lethargy, and heightened irritability can also be signs that you are carrying too much anxiety around with you.
There are risks if you have significantly heightened anxiety levels for long periods of time. As well as the day to day symptoms listed above, living with elevated background anxiety levels places you at much greater risk of developing an anxiety disorder (such as a phobia), and also can place you at greater risk of developing depression.
“Great, one more thing to worry about,” I hear you say. The good news is that understanding anxiety is the first step to taking control. And there are a number of simple strategies that will give you immediate improvements in lowering your background anxiety levels.
Anxiety is something that we carry with us in our mind and body, and the two are inter-related. Our minds and our bodies talk to one another. Anxiety is carried physically in areas such as tensed muscles (for example tight shoulders and neck, or knotted stomach); elevated heart rate; and shallow, fast breathing.
The physical manifestations of anxiety are the result of our fight or flight instinct. At the first hint of danger we release adrenalin in preparation for potentially life-saving action. Our bodies start responding to this chemical awakening in preparation to run or fight for our lives. We are alert and activated. During periods of activation (fight or flight preparation) our senses become hyper-vigilant. We notice noises and movements, and our brains race to make sense of our environment.
These physical responses to danger happen more quickly than our conscious thought processes. Our brains notice our bodies in this heightened state of activation, and start to search for possible reasons. Sometimes these explanations are accurate and helpful, but other times our brains add one and one together and get three. Once we are convinced that the danger has passed our bodies start to slow down again.
This process of stimulation, chemical release, body activation, and then slowly calming down, happens every day. The activation phase happens very quickly, and the calming phase happens much more slowly as the chemicals released during activation gradually wash through your body. If you get stimulated again before you return to your resting anxiety level, your body will spike up higher than before because you started from a point of heightened anxiety. The risk is that you continue to get re-stimulated before you get a chance to calm down, and over time your resting or default anxiety level becomes higher and higher.
The good news is that there are many things that can be done to lower your background anxiety levels.
Twenty minutes of vigorous exercise that elevates your heart rate can help to use up the chemicals released during your period of activation. This speeds your return to your resting anxiety level. Vigorous exercise means different things for different people. If you are new to exercise then a fast walk for 20 minutes will do the trick. If your body is fitter then you will need to run for 20 minutes to get the same anxiety reducing benefit. Massage and yoga (self-massage) are also great strategies to calm your body and lower your background anxiety levels. Cutting down on caffeine is another way to lower your background anxiety levels, but I’m not advocating coffee abstinence (that would be impossible!).
Calming your mind can also help to break the anxiety cycle, and regular, guided meditation can help. So can other pursuits that get you out of your head and into the moment. I find riding my motorbike has the same effect – you have no option but to live in the moment. And I’m told surfing works, too.
So in summary, we all carry with us a level of background anxiety. Over time our background anxiety level can ratchet up through repeated stimulation and not enough time to calm down between these spikes. Heightened background anxiety can create uncomfortable symptoms like difficulty sleeping, but over time can lead to more serious problems like anxiety disorders and depression. Exercise, yoga, massage, and reducing your caffeine intake can all help in lowering your background anxiety levels.
© Peter Young, November 2010
ARTICLE – OCTOBER 2010
Where we will be in 10 years time will be determined not so much by big life decisions, but more from lots of little decisions that are repeated over and over – our daily habits. Decisions about when we go to bed, when we wake up, what we do when we wake up (exercise or roll over for another half hour of rest), what we eat for main meals, and what we eat for snacks. Another important (and often unconscious) habit is how we comfort ourselves when we are sad or stressed. Food (or drink, or smoking) can play a part here for some of us.
What are your daily habits when it comes to food, exercise, socialising, work and fun? And are your daily habits in harmony with how you see yourself, and where you want to be in 5 or 10 years time?
Knowing about the power of daily habits is a good start, but it’s not enough. Change depends on three key building blocks - knowledge, motivation, and the emotional capacity to make positive changes.
The knowledge you need is partly understanding the power of small daily decisions, and also knowing about your body. What to eat. How to exercise effectively and safely. How to care for your health. Attending classes or being trained by a personal trainer can be a helpful strategy to build your knowledge about caring for your physical self.
Motivation comes in part from having short and long term goals, and tracking your progress towards those goals. Long term goals might relate to your work, your financial position, your health, or your relationships. Shorter term goals might relate to changed behaviours (new habits) and stepping stone changes such as reaching a savings target, becoming fitter, or toning up your body. Knowing where you want to get to, having a plan of how you intend to get there, and monitoring progress along the kway are all part of building and maintaining motivation.
But having goals, having plans of how to achieve those goals, and measuring progress are not enough. Your emotional capacity will ultimately determine whether your best laid plans come to fruition. How many times have you started down the road of changed habits and then slipped back into old and ultimately unhelpful patterns? It’s hard to stay motivated when you are lacking in positive energy. And it can also be hard to stay motivated through inevitable and quite normal periods of melancholy, when old patterns often reassert themself.
So what is emotional capacity? Perhaps a better term might be emotional settledness. It is the extent to which you have made peace with the various bits that make up who you are – in other words, to become more integrated as a person. If you can spend less energy on these private, internal conflicts you will have more energy to pursue positive pursuits that ultimately help you towards your goals.
Similarly if you can learn to be more gentle and loving with yourself, you will have greater capacity to be forgiving of yourself during difficult periods. Self criticism for being sad, for example, can deepen and prolong periods of sadness, and can help to bring on unhelpful self-soothing patterns – some of the old and unhelpful habits you might be trying to change.
Different streams of counselling approach change differently. Gestalt therapy talks about achieving greater self-integration through self knowledge and self acceptance. This is what is called “the paradoxical theory of change”. People often come to counselling because they want to change an aspect of who they are. But change comes from better knowing yourself and through learning greater self acceptance. Self acceptance makes change less necessary and more possible (hence the paradox).
Where you are heading is ultimately a product of your daily habits. And reshaping these habits can be helped through knowledge, motivation, and emotional settledness. The last of these three building blocks is often the most overlooked, and might be the most crucial for some people.
| If you are interested to explore this topic of the power of habits, have a look at Steven Covey’s great book, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” |
© Peter Young, October 2010